


Channel Surfer

by TreeFrogSoup



Category: Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 04:46:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2800064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TreeFrogSoup/pseuds/TreeFrogSoup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor triggers with a thinker power allowing her to see multiple holographic screens that consist of what other people see.  Coil finds the temptation too inviting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Coil sat on his chair looking out at the several screens across the ruined streets of Brockton Bay. Several construction projects stood out as far as he could see from his extensive network of cameras he had been installing throughout the city as it rebuilds from the fateful attack.

Noelle was safe and secure in his hands, and so was what he considered his other set of eyes. He’d spent several weeks setting up his plan to obtain his current acquisitions and with aid in distracting the police before Leviathan's attack from the Undersiders he was happy at the progress he made so far. There was still more to be done, however.

Coil got up from his chair, taking the vial of liquid and syringe from the cabinet inside and entered the room next to his office. It was dark, which was how she liked it. She panicked too often in the light. She sometimes hurt herself, much to Coil’s disappointment. The light from the doorway barely reached her, as she sat in the corner of the room muttering to herself. The cold haze she was under left her unable to even eat without aid from outside parties, very unlike how she was weeks before. He broke her and gained compliance.

She stopped screaming and kicking long ago, retreating to her own world in the dark room, watching everyone else.

“Tattletale currently talking to Grue,” she murmured, blinking. “Oni Lee currently t-talking to a sub-subordinate over a game of poker,”

She hadn’t even reacted for a moment since the door opened. Coil tried to bring her back to reality.

“Sweetie,” he said, walking towards her as he flipped the light switch in the room. “It’s time for your candy,”

She flinched, and chains rattled. A memento of when she had the will to struggle, to run away.

“Kid Win currently talking to S-Sophia Hess,” she said. A shiver ran down her spine as she said it. “Dinah Alcott eating breakfast,”

Coil knew she’d not payed a lick of notice towards him, and it was a willing act rather than based on the throes of withdrawal . He’d have to punish her for her disobedience. Coil walked over to her and pulled on her chin, making her face him.

“Taylor, it’s time for your candy,” he said.

She snapped out of her daze immediately and looked at Coil, almost brighter than she was moments before.

“Oh yeah,” she laughed weakly, remembering the drugs. “Candy. You’ll give me candy, right?”

“I will give it like I had promised, but I need to ask you if you can look into the eyes of a few people,” he bartered back.

Taylor looked at the floor. “I-I’ll do it,”

“Good girl,” he said, patting her on her head gently. “So let’s begin, shall we?”

***

Taylor sat in the dark, looking like she’d sat through a tornado. Her body was weak, riddled with addictive chemicals and her vision flickered from screen to screen as as they popped up and disappeared before her eyes. She never knew the names of many of these people she was watching, only that they were perfect distractions as she sat alone in delirium.

One screen was very interesting, not just to Taylor, but to Coil.

“So what now?” asked a voice behind a black mask, audibly altered.

The screen jerked away, looking at something else. A man wearing a mask and a crown.

“Regent?” said a female voice, asking for an opinion.

“Lung’s still out there, we can’t take Bakuda or Oni Lee without him being out of action first.” said the masked man. He was holding a sceptre, twirling it in his left hand.

“We can do it,” pleaded the female voice. “We have help.”

Taylor bit her thumbnail, bringing her knees up to her chest. She liked this person, she was always interesting to watch. Coil thought so too.

“Tattletale, we just can’t do it,” said the obscured voice. The screen Taylor was fixed on shot around to look back at the owner of the voice. “We don’t have a plan. You don’t have a plan.”

“I do,” replied Tattletale. “Lung and Oni Lee won’t attack together, and Oni Lee’s too much of a coward to fight alone,” she said.

“No way,” interrupted Regent. “We are not going to walk into a damn mine-”

“We aren’t going too,” she finished. “We have money from our employer. Plenty of money. As much as I hate working with her, we could hire Faultline’s crew to do the dirty work.”

Taylor quickly flicked to a second screen. Somebody reading notes with a marker on the side. They underlined the words ‘Case 53’.

She cut the feed to that screen, looking back at the plotting gang of crooks.

“-o it’s a two pronged attack?” asked Grue, the man in black.

“Yeah,” clarified Tattletale. “Faultline goes in and takes Bakuda, and we split up and take out two of their other bases. We’ll be attacking their money and drug caches so they’ll be knocked off their feet in the meantime, too.”

“And since we’ll be doing it while the Protectorate is away, only the wards would be able to get involved, which they wouldn’t, because the ABB and Faultline’s crew is involved in this,” suggested Grue, sitting on a chair next to a table.

Tattletale turned to Regent, who was laying on a couch.

“I don’t want to be with Bitch,” he said. “You do it.”

Taylor was trying to lean in closer (an act that would result in nothing due to the fixed distance from the screens her eyes always were) when the door opened and she blinked the screens away.

“Come along, Pet. We have work to do.”


	2. 1.2

Taylor felt Coil’s gentle hand pat her on her head as she sat cross legged directly next to his seat, four separate screens up before her as he watched. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch them. She couldn’t do it. Not while Coil watched.

Coil took a sip from his tumbler. “Change Grue’s view to Labyrinth’s, dear.”

That wasn’t a suggestion. She did so, easily. Labyrinth was sitting in a van, Faultline and Spitfire sitting across from her, side by side. Faultline made a gesture and got out the back, with spitfire right behind her.

A chill ran down Taylor’s spine. She knew that her own lucidity was a sign of the drugs wearing off. And with that followed withdrawal.

She tugged at the clothing on Coil’s leg, making him look away from one of the other screens.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Can I have some candy?”

“Not exactly now, pet,” he replied, warmly. “Can you show me how Mr. Walters is doing?”

She changed the screen that had Clockblocker up to Mr Walters. He was waiting in a truck too, along with other men in suits and masks. So much waiting, she thought. not enough action.

She caught herself reaching for the screen again, quickly moving her arm back to her site and sitting on her hands to prevent them from wandering, to prevent herself from fidgeting. She’d already wrecked the clothes she was given, stray threads were loose all around the hem of her dress.

The screens were perfect. Mr Walters, Labyrinth, Tattletale and Lung were the four screens clockwise from top left.

The pieces were set. Everyone was in place.

Mr Walters screen wasn’t interesting at it felt. He was just walking up to some house in the middle of nowhere. Taylor paid more attention to Tattletale’s screen.

“Bitch, don’t kill anybody, just scare em, and if they don’t behave, hit them lightly,” Tattletale said while looking at the scruffy girl with a cheap dog mask on the side of her head. She was intensely staring at tattletale, and by proxy, Coil and Taylor.

“I know what to do,” she replied.

Coil sighed a little, taking another sip.

Labyrinth’s view had little changes. She hadn’t moved at all, but she could hear explosions and an occasional gunshot. A spiked wall stuck out of the corner of her view, and she turned to look out the open back of the truck. Shards of stone blasted everywhere, Faultline emerging with an unidentified female in ABB colours stumbling. She fell down, unconscious.

“We got Bakuda. Good work, Newter. All we need now is to keep her asleep and get the hell out of here. Newter, take her to one of the safehouses, keep her restrained, and head back to me. I don’t want to know what sort of crap she has on her.”

She stepped into the truck and closed the door as Spitfire limped in after her.

Lung’s view wasn’t much. He got the message from a subordinate, and sent a team out. Oni Lee and Lung were going after the Undersiders as they robbed the caches.

Coil picked up a microphone.

“Go.”

Mr Walter’s team broke into the house. A couple were sitting, watching TV. They went down as Mr Walters shot a dart at the male, and another man shot the female. Mr Walters tuned and gestured to a man behind him. he moved up the stairs alongside yet another man.

Mr Walters entered the kitchen and began opening cupboards, one by one. He got to the third before he heard radio chatter.

“This is Bravo, target Dinah Alcott secure, sir.”

Coil placed his hand gently on Taylor’s head.


	3. Chapter 3

The fight was over. The Undersiders luckily bailed out before Oni Lee and Lung could catch up to them, and the chaos means that for at least another hour Lung won’t notice Bakuda’s been taken by Faultline’s crew.

Tattletale took a moment to head to her personal room in the loft, under the pretense of needing some rest.

Taylor was in her room, un-needed while Coil worked on his other projects.

She slowly walked over to the corner of the room, sat down facing the door and brought up two screens; Tattletale and Coil.

Coil’s screen was always odd. At times it showed two separate screens, usually doing similar but different acts. Taylor figured that was how his power worked, a form of precognition. He was busy with his men. She didn’t bother to think about her new ‘teammate’.

Tattletale was waiting.

Taylor took a breath, and reached out for Tattletale’s screen. She touched it, then gently dragged her finger across the screen, writing out her message.

‘HERE’

It stayed there, on the screen. Consequently, it also stayed in Tattletale’s vision. The power to reach out.

Tattletale picked up and looked into a hand mirror, smiling. “Good to hear from you.”

‘HURY’

“I will,” said Tattletale. “We need contact with Coil, though. If Grue sees, we can convince hi-”

Taylor interrupted with a new message. ‘HE TOOK SOME1 ELSE TDAY’

Tattletale paused, thinking about it. “When?” she asked, concerned this time.

‘ABB RAID’

The cogs were clearly working in her head.

“Thinker?”

‘Y’  
She got the message. Taylor already gave Tattletale an idea of what Coil’s powers were. An idea of what Taylor is doing with Coil.

The final piece was in place.

“I have to hurry,” she finally said, a look of concern growing. “The timing is growing tricky. One wrong move an-”

‘HAVE A PLN’

Tattletale gave a curious look behind her mask.

“Okay,” she said. “Fill me in.”

‘C DOSNT NO ALL MY PWRS’

‘I COULD LET FEW SPEC PPL NO’

“I don’t know who wouldn’t let it slip,” said Tattletale.

‘ARM WANTS GLORY’

‘THIS IS A BIG SCUP’

“He could mess it up trying to do it himself.”

‘I HAVE A WAY’

‘BEEN WATCHIN HIM’

‘I KNOW THINS’

Taylor bit her fingernails and crossed her legs. Coil was heading back.

“Damn brats,” he muttered under his breath. His screen quickly became one, then two again.

“Okay,” said Tattletale. “Let him know. Tomorrow?”

‘OKAY’

Taylor closed the screens and opened up a different one as Coil reached and opened the door. 

“Are you okay in there, dear?”  
Taylor as better than ever, she’d be out soon. All she had to do was keep up her act and wait.


End file.
